Nazi symbolism

Part of a series on
Nazism
show Organizations National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) Sturmabteilung (SA) Schutzstaffel (SS) Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) Hitler Youth (HJ) Deutsches Jungvolk (DJ) League of German Girls (BDM) National Socialist German Doctors' League National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB) National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise (NSRL) National Socialist Flyers Corps (NSFK) National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) National Socialist Women's League (NSF) Combat League of Revolutionary National Socialists (KGRNS)
show History Early timeline Hitler's rise to power Machtergreifung German re-armament Nazi Germany Religion in Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler's cult of personality Night of the Long Knives Nuremberg rallies Anti-Comintern Pact Kristallnacht World War II Tripartite Pact The Holocaust Nuremberg trials Neo-Nazism
show Ideology Fascism Totalitarianism Führerprinzip Authoritarian democracy Houston Stewart Chamberlain Gleichschaltung Arthur de Gobineau Hitler's political views Mein Kampf The Myth of the Twentieth Century Militarism National Socialist Program New Order Preussentum und Sozialismus Propaganda Religious aspects Strasserism Symbolism Women in Nazi Germany
show Racial ideology Aryan race Blood and Soil An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races Eugenics The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century Greater Germanic Reich Heim ins Reich Lebensraum Master race The Passing of the Great Race Racial policy of Nazi Germany Völkisch equality Volkskörper
show Final Solution Concentration camps Deportations Doctors' trial Extermination camps Genocide Ghettos Human experimentation Labour camps Pogroms Racial segregation
show People Adolf Hitler Joseph Goebbels Hermann Göring Martin Bormann Kurt Daluege Richard Walther Darré Anton Drexler Dietrich Eckart Adolf Eichmann Gottfried Feder Hans Frank Wilhelm Frick Rudolf Hess Reinhard Heydrich Heinrich Himmler Hans Lammers Joachim von Ribbentrop Karl Dönitz Ernst Röhm Alfred Rosenberg Arthur Seyss-Inquart Albert Speer Gregor Strasser Otto Strasser Julius Streicher
show Nazism outside of Germany American Nazi Party Nordic Resistance Movement Aria Party (Persia) Arrow Cross Party (Hungary) Azure Party (Persia) Bulgarian National Socialist Workers Party German American Bund German National Movement in Liechtenstein Greek National Socialist Party South African Gentile National Socialist Movement Hungarian National Socialist Party Nasjonal Samling (Norway) National Movement of Switzerland National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands National Socialist Bloc (Sweden) National Socialist League (UK) National Socialist Movement of Chile National Socialist Movement (United States) National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark National Unity Party (Canada) Nazism in Brazil Nationalist Liberation Alliance (Argentina) SUMKA Ossewabrandwag (South Africa) World Union of National Socialists
show Lists Books by or about Adolf Hitler Nazi ideologues Nazi Party leaders and officials Nazi Party members Speeches given by Adolf Hitler SS personnel
show Related topics Antisemitism Beefsteak Nazi Denazification Enabling Act of 1933 Fascism Glossary of Nazi Germany The Holocaust Neo-Nazism Völkisch movement Zweites Buch
Category  Germany portal
v t

The swastika was the first symbol of Nazism and remains strongly associated with it in the Western world.

The 20th-century German Nazi Party made extensive use of graphic symbols, especially the swastika,^[1] notably in the form of the swastika flag, which became the co-national flag of Nazi Germany in 1933, and the sole national flag in 1935.^[2] A very similar flag had represented the Party beginning in 1920.

Swastika[]

The Nazis' principal symbol was the swastika, which the newly established Nazi Party formally adopted in 1920.^[3] The emblem was a black swastika (卐) rotated 45 degrees on a white circle on a red background. This insignia was used on the party's flag, badge, and armband. Similar shaped swastikas were seen in United States postcards wishing people good luck in the early 1900s.^[4][5]

The black-white-red motif is based on the colours of the flags of the German Empire. This colour scheme was commonly associated with anti-Weimar German nationalists, following the fall of the German Empire.^[6] The Nazis denounced the black-red-gold flag of the Weimar republic (the current flag of Germany).^[6]

In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler described the symbolism of the Nazi flag: "The red expressed the social thought underlying the movement. White the national thought. And the swastika signified the mission allotted to us—the struggle for the victory of Aryan mankind and at the same time the triumph of the ideal of creative work ..."^[7]

Today, certain countries such as Germany (see Strafgesetzbuch section 86a), Austria, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, Brazil, and Israel have banned Nazi symbols and it is considered a criminal offence if they are displayed publicly for non-educational purposes. On August 9, 2018, Germany lifted the ban on the usage of swastikas and other Nazi symbols in video games. "Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can for the first time be given a USK age rating", USK managing director Elisabeth Secker told CTV. "This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and videogames."^[8][9]

Heraldry[]

The ancient arms of Coburg (left) featured the head of Saint Maurice, a symbol looked down upon by the Nazi party. In 1934, it was replaced by a coat of arms featuring a sword with a swastika on the pommel (right). The original coat of arms was restored in 1945.

Under the Nazi regime, government bodies were encouraged to remove religious symbolism from their heraldry. Symbols such as crosses, saints, etc. were seen as upsetting to the Nazis; however, few German councils actually changed their often ancient symbols. Some, however, did, including Coburg, which replaced the Maure on their arms with a sword and swastika, and Thuringia, which added a swastika to the paws of their lion.^[10]

Other symbols[]

Other symbols employed by the Nazis include:

• The eagle atop swastika (German: Reichsadler), the formal symbol of the Nazi Party
• The SS bolts, the runic insignia of the Schutzstaffel^[11][12]
• Various runes from the runic script, such as the Odal/Othala, Algiz/Leben, Tyr/Tiwaz runes and other rune-like symbols^[13][14] such as the Wolfsangel^[15]
• The black SS uniform
• The brown shirts of the Sturmabteilung
• The death's head insignia of the SS-Totenkopfverbände and concentration camp units^[16]
• The Black Sun (German: Schwarze Sonne/Sonnenrad) used by Heinrich Himmler of the SS.
• The crossed hammer and sword of Strasserism, a strand of Nazism that has a Third Positionist ideology.
• The broken sun cross swastika.
• The Celtic cross, which was originally a symbol used to represent pre-Christian and Christian European groups such as the Irish, has been used since World War II by many neo-Nazi groups.

Runic letters[]

Letters of the historical runic alphabet and the modern Armanen runes have been used by Nazism and neo-Nazi groups that associate themselves with Germanic traditions, mainly the Sigel, Eihwaz, Tyr;^[17] c.f. Odal^[18][19] (see Odalism) and Algiz^[20] runes.

The fascination that runes seem to have exerted on the Nazis can be traced to the occult and völkisch author Guido von List, one of the important figures in Germanic mysticism and runic revivalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1908, List published in Das Geheimnis der Runen ("The Secret of the Runes") a set of 18 so-called "Armanen Runes", based on the Younger Futhark, which were allegedly revealed to him in a state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902.

In Nazi contexts, the s-rune is referred to as "Sig" (after List, probably from Anglo-Saxon Sigel). The "Wolfsangel", while not a rune historically, has the shape of List's "Gibor" rune. Runic "SS" was the symbol of the Schutzstaffel.

Usages by neo-Nazi groups[]

Many symbols used by the Nazis have further been appropriated by neo-Nazi groups, including a number of runes.

Neo-Nazis however also employ various number symbols such as:

• 18, code for Adolf Hitler. The number comes from the position of the letters in the alphabet: A = 1, H = 8.^[21]
• 88, code for 88 Precepts. A manifesto written by David Lane, a late 20th-century American white supremacist, on the proper organization of a white nationalist nation, 88 Precepts is a treatise on natural law, religion and politics.^[22] However, according to the Anti-Defamation League, it is code for Heil Hitler. Again, the number comes from the position of the letter H in the Latin alphabet.^[23]
• 14, from the Fourteen Words coined by David Lane: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."^[24]
• 14 and 88 are sometimes combined with each other (i.e. 14/88, 8814, 1488).^[25] They are also sometimes depicted on dice.^[26]

Gallery[]

• 

  The Parteiadler of the Nazi Party (1933–1945)

• 

  SS death's head insignia^[27]

• 

  Horizontally aligned Wolfsangel, used by the 2nd SS Panzer Division^[28]

• 

  Vertical Wolfsangel

• 

  Odal rune^[18][19] (also used by the American-based "National Socialist Movement" since November 2016)^[29]

• 

  SS Doppel Sigrune

• 

  Algiz rune

• 

  A simplified version of the Celtic cross is used by various neo-Nazi groups

• 

  The broken sun cross used by the German Faith Movement and the 5th SS Panzer Division, also used by the Thule Society^[30][31]

• 

  The Hammer and Sword utilized by adherents of Strasserism

• 

  The Black Sun used by Esoteric Nazi circles and other neo-nazi groups

See also[]

References[]

External links[]

• Hate on Display: A Visual Database of Extremist Symbols, Logos and Tattoos
• A collection of forbidden Nazi symbols and emblems of various groups
• Symbols used by white supremacists
• "New Book Reveals Secret Meaning of Neo-Nazi Codes"
• "These are the new symbols of hate"